Oppose Contra Dollars

Now is the time to urge senators Heinz and Specter, as well as U.S. Rep. Ritter, to vote against any form of aid for the anti-government "contras" (terrorists?) in Nicaragua.

The present government in Nicaragua, while it may not always be to our liking, has been re-elected by majorities larger than that won by the ever- popular Ronald Reagan, in elections that all international observers agree were fair and open to five parties. Despite problems it remains a popular government. What arrogance prompts us to suppose we have the right to try to overthrow it?

While some in the "contra" movement may be honest and disillusioned idealists, many are simply murderers, adventurers or former members of Somoza's dreaded National Guard. Christopher Dickey's recent book, "With the Contras," documents that fact. Democracy by any recognizable definition is hardly their goal! Neither is the rationale earlier given by the Reagan administration, that of stopping a flow of arms to rebels in El Salvador. (Indeed, now the flow of supplies is precisely in the opposite direction, from U.S. bases in El Salvador to the contras!)

In the second week of February, eight Latin American foreign ministers told Secretary of State Shultz that the U.S. should halt this attempt to impose a military solution to its own liking. They asked us instead to support the broad-based Contadora negotiations for a peaceful, political settlement. Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo says that this declaration is endorsed by 13 Latin American nations, Japan and the European Economic Community. How long can American dignity and idealism continue to ignore, even insult, such a global consensus?

It would be far more to our national interest to encourage the more moderate elements within the Sandinista government, and to scale down the regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Central American region.